Out: Promoting yourself. In: Promoting your friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cDate My Friend<\/a>,\u201d a new event series, is putting wingmen front and center by having them sell their single besties to crowds of eager bachelors and bachelorettes.<\/p>\n The idea for the singles-night-with-a-twist came after creator Brit O\u2019Brien noticed her single male friends weren\u2019t meeting anyone when they\u2019d go out.<\/p>\n \u201cAs someone who really likes all my single guy friends, I was like, ‘Man, whenever we go to shows, you guys never meet anybody or talk to anybody,’\u201d said O\u2019Brien, a married Los Angeles-based music photographer. She said it inspired her to create a space that would feel \u201clike a concert venue, but you can talk to people.\u201d<\/p>\n She held the first \u201cDate My Friend\u201d event this January, and it unexpectedly sold out after a Partiful for it somehow went viral, which \u201cwe didn\u2019t even know was a thing that could happen.\u201d The next five events they set up also sold out, \u201cso we just know there is such a desire for this kind of space right now.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just Angelenos: “Date My Friend” lands in New York, at Alphabet City\u2019s Night Club 101 this March 25<\/a>, and quickly sold out. (There are still some tickets left for the second date she subsequently added, at Ridgewood\u2019s Cassette on March 26<\/a>.)<\/p>\n So big is the market for similar events that there are multiple other entities with the same name \u2014 O\u2019Brien reached out and got the preexisting “Date My Friend SF<\/a>” organizers\u2019 blessing before launching, and makes clear in the fine print that she\u2019s not associated with an app that trademarked the name<\/a>.<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien, 33, expects New York \u201cpitchers\u201d to be funnier and more teasing in promoting their \u201ccatches\u201d than their Californian counterparts. Indeed, it turns out that even within LA, the way people choose to promote their friends varies significantly neighborhood to neighborhood.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Santa Monica, peoples\u2019 pitches were straight to the point. They’re like, \u2018She’s looking for someone who looks like Timothy Chalamet and she works in real estate. If you want her, you have to be a 10,’\u201d O\u2019Brien recalled. Meanwhile, in East LA, pitchers gave rambling presentations more akin to wedding speeches. No matter how pitchers go about it, though, it\u2019s a pretty inherently bonding experience for them and their friends, O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n So far, there are at least two couples who\u2019ve met through the series, and O\u2019Brien thinks it offers everyone a wholesome, earnest good time that\u2019s most importantly very genuinely human<\/a>. That\u2019s significant when \u201cevery person who\u2019s there hates the apps and has deleted them and is like, I\u2019m so not doing that anymore, it\u2019s been nothing but a problem for me and just feels so robotic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In addition to feeling refreshingly offline, the events also offer singles another thing that apps do not: a fun story about how you met your partner.<\/p>\n